Alpha Paging
Alpha pagers have been around for decades now, and although cell
phone text messaging has displaced a large portion of alpha paging
companies' business, alpha pagers are still one of the most popular
methods of message delivery for many professionals. Spun off from
digital
paging technologies, medical professionals in particular still
find alpha paging to be very popular.
What is an Alpha Pager?
An alpha pager is a communications device in which small strings
of text messages are digitally displayed on a hand held device.
Callers will leave an alpha pager message over a telephone,
which alpha paging companies will then broadcast from radio
towers to the waiting hand held devices.
The Pros Of Using An Alpha Pager For Answering Service Message
Delivery
Alpha pagers have traditionally been a very fast method for
delivering methods. Many answering services transmit messages
out to alpha pagers via email or traditional phone modems. In
Telephone Answering Service's case, alpha paging is an automated
feature that instantly delivers messages to TAS customers as
soon as a message is saved. Alpha pagers are also very economical
when compared to a cell phone. Monthly service charges from
many alpha paging companies typically don't exceed $10/month.
The Cons Of The Alpha Pager
Alpha pagers are an antiquated technology, and although effective
for message
delivery in certain professions, are generally limited not
only in their capabilities, but also their range. Alpha page
messages from an answering service are also sent in an "open
loop system". An open loop system is when the answering
service doesn't know whether a customer has received a message
or not. Once the answering service broadcasts the message to
an alpha paging company, it is impossible for the answering
service to know whether the customer received the message.
While the alpha pager is traditionally a speedy and reliable
form of communications, it is recommeneded to all Telephone
Answering Service customers to combine the alpha paging service
with other methods of message delivery, such as Answerweb or
email.
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